1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power receptacle device, and more particularly to a power receptacle device with rotatable sockets.
2. Description of Related Art
Electric devices and appliances are being used increasingly in the home, at work and during travel and require an individual source of power for use or charging so are plugged into sockets in electrical outlets. However, additional electrical outlets and sockets are expensive to install and may only be used temporarily, so power strips are used for quick and simple extension or expansion of outlets and sockets. A conventional power strip has a base and a power cable. The base has multiple sockets to allow electric devices to plug in. The power cable electrically connects the multiple sockets to an external power source.
However, if the sockets on the base are arranged closely together, a power cable of one electric device having a plug with a large power adapter, especially one with a transformer or rectifier, may cover up an adjacent socket. Therefore, a number of available sockets is reduced. Furthermore, when not in use a power strip is not attractive so is usually hidden behind furniture, but then is inaccessible for frequent use items, such as portable music players, cell phones, PDAs and the like.
When traveling with multiple devices such as a laptop, camera, cell phone, PDA, speakers, external drive, printer, portable music player and the like, an adapter, converter or both may also be required to allow a plug be inserted to the socket and ensure a correct voltage, alternatively only one socket may be provided per room, therefore, small portable power strips are required. However, minimizing a size of power strip increases power cables blocking adjacent sockets and providing sockets on multiple faces may increase a risk or fire or electric shock should a socket be on the ground and liquid be spilled or accumulate nearby.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a power receptacle device having rotatable sockets to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.